Take heed what you say. Walls have ears. (James Shirley)
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Be careful what you say, as others may be listening
Literally: walls can hear
Examples
Take heed what you say, walls have ears
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “Take heed what you say. Walls have ears. (James Shirley)” mean?
Be careful what you say, as others may be listening Literally: walls can hear
Is “Take heed what you say. Walls have ears. (James Shirley)” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.